XIII
SOMETHING ON DRIVING
Desirability of Instruction
Ninety-nine women out of every hundred are firmly convinced that instruction is by no means necessary to their driving safely and in good form. Four men out of five labor under the same delusion. It is a sad error, that leads to numberless failures, and many accidents which might so easily be avoided if the services of a competent teacher were employed at the beginning. Having seen others drive without any apparent difficulty, the novice conceives the notion that there is nothing to learn which cannot be mastered without assistance after one or two attempts. If such a one escapes a bill of damages, it should be credited to the ministering care of her guardian angel. She may indeed escape accident; she may learn to start without dislocating the neck of every one in the trap, and get around the corner without an upset; but she will never learn to drive. There is something more for her to know than that she must pull the off rein to turn to the right and the near one to go to the left, though this appears to be the extent of knowledge deemed necessary.
Women, even more than men, require a thorough understanding of what they are doing, for they lack the strength to rectify a miscalculation at the last moment. The ignorance, indecision, and weakness frequently displayed by women in driving are what so often render them objects of apprehension to experienced whips.
It is folly for any woman to flatter herself that she needs only a little practice, and that the rest "will come." If she has not begun correctly, practice will only wed her to the faults she must have acquired.